Wednesday, 11 December 2013

Deluded!

This man is having a laugh.
7 year olds don't need Sats tests. They never did! Sats tests are the worst thing that ever happened to
a 7 year old! ( and their parents!)

The trouble is that,nowadays, too many people think that if you throw a test at something,it'll be the cure. How wrong they are.

Throwing a Sats test at the reading problem in our country,is not the answer! And think of the money wasted.

A good teacher knows her children inside out. A govt test does not. And the sooner as those in power
start thinking differently, the better.

I will tell you what is needed to improve children's reading. It's easy.
Make reading TOP PRIORITY. Hear children read, daily. It's as simple as that. Show me a teacher who does that nowadays!

As a classroom teacher in various schools, that's exactly what I did.

As a private tutor,reading takes top priority. I may not be able to hear my children read daily
but I try to get over the importance of this,to their parents.

I have children ( struggling readers) who come to me and they hardly read to anyone at school. Maybe,they get to read to their teacher once a week, if they are lucky. Sometimes ,they only read to a parent. This isn't right either because they are struggling; the hearing of reading is a teaching situation as far as those children are concerned.
Yet , they are expected to make progress ! Goodness knows how!

You can throw as many Sats tests at 7 year olds but it's not going to help their reading progress one little bit.

Better that you concentrated on the cause of the problem,Mr Wilshaw!!!